Clinical Help

[emsuper]

I am a nursing student currently in my last semester. I graduate in December and was fairly confident in my skill until my clinical day yesterday. For the first time I was completely on my own with two patients and we were doing total patient care+meds. My first med pass with my instructor did not go well in the morning and it threw me off all day. I was instructed by the nurse to give the meds one way, but the way the the nurse was administering them was incorrect and I should have caught this, but I did not. Also an order was put in that morning to DC fluids, and the patient had antibiotics running with NS behind it and I did not stop the fluids because that morning the nurse said to me that she wanted to keep fluids running due to inadequate output. Also, I accidentally ordered an extra vial of Heparin from the pharmacy (which I obviously did not administer I just read the vial incorrectly). I was ALSO giving a CCB and did not take BP immediately before giving the med. Overall it went horribly and I think my instructor thinks I am incompetent. Now I am looking back on the day thinking about all of the things I could have done better and freaking out for my future. Is this a normal response for new grads? Do I sound unprepared? I believe I just have a lot to learn and am still adjusting to a new unit. Please someone tell me this level of anxiety is normal and mistakes like this are made.

[Sour Lemon]

I am a nursing student currently in my last semester. I graduate in December and was fairly confident in my skill until my clinical day yesterday. For the first time I was completely on my own with two patients and we were doing total patient care+meds. My first med pass with my instructor did not go well in the morning and it threw me off all day. I was instructed by the nurse to give the meds one way, but the way the the nurse was administering them was incorrect and I should have caught this, but I did not. Also an order was put in that morning to DC fluids, and the patient had antibiotics running with NS behind it and I did not stop the fluids because that morning the nurse said to me that she wanted to keep fluids running due to inadequate output. Also, I accidentally ordered an extra vial of Heparin from the pharmacy (which I obviously did not administer I just read the vial incorrectly). I was ALSO giving a CCB and did not take BP immediately before giving the med. Overall it went horribly and I think my instructor thinks I am incompetent. Now I am looking back on the day thinking about all of the things I could have done better and freaking out for my future. Is this a normal response for new grads? Do I sound unprepared? I believe I just have a lot to learn and am still adjusting to a new unit. Please someone tell me this level of anxiety is normal and mistakes like this are made.

I don't hear anything super horrible. I don't take blood pressure immediately before giving cardiac meds, either ...I just look at trends and make sure there's been one done fairly recently. The heparin could have been a big deal if you'd actually administered it.